Your Admirer
by Loving Your Smile
Summary: When Ginny discovers the anonymous love letters she's been receiving have all just been an April Fools joke by Draco Malfoy, revenge is obviously the only course of action.


Ginny liked to think of herself as logical. Not brilliant, or anything- she was smart enough, but she certainly wasn't a genius. She just had a lot of common sense and was good at solving puzzles. Clever, you might say.

So when she got her first anonymous love letter at breakfast about a week ago, she started thinking immediately of who it could be from. Dean Thomas maybe? No, he definitely didn't know how to spell "bodacious", and from the essay she once proofread for him, his handwriting wasn't nearly as legible. This person's handwriting was very neat, and smooth, and a touch embellished, like he was from the 1800's or something. Elegant. This person must have spent hours as a kid, practicing writing the alphabet until he was satisfied.

Which led Ginny to believe the letters were (maybe) from Ian Anderson, a rather silly, somewhat cute Hufflepuff boy from potions class. He liked to joke around a lot, sure, but she also knew he got top marks and teachers liked him despite the fact he had the tendency to disrupt the class. She'd also caught him staring and smiling at her more often recently, which she took as confirmation of her theory.

So she was already anticipating what the encounter her latest note had mentioned would be like. The note had been simple and brief. "1 p.m. by the statue of Ewan Fitzgarrity. Be there" She'd known it'd been from _him_, despite the lack of the usual flourishing signature, "Your Admirer". But she hadn't decided whether or not she was excited about the meeting with him, whoever he really was. She wasn't sure she really wanted it to be from Ian, as she was fairly certain she didn't return his ardor, if it were there. Besides, there were plenty of better looking and generally more interesting boys than Ian, who didn't do stupid things in class.

She could name several, actually.

Maybe.

But despite that, she was still going to meet him tonight, just to be nice and tell him in person she wasn't into him like that, if it really was Ian. She hoped he didn't take it too hard; after all, this guy had written in one letter that, "Every time I see you, I feel like a better person. Or at least, I feel like I could be one." He must have really liked her to say that, and she was worried that Ian would hate her after she shot him down. But it would be much worse, she thought, if she just went along with it and pretended she liked him as much as he liked her. Stringing along guys was really not in her agenda.

And if it were someone else... well, she wasn't sure how she was going to respond. She supposed it had to depend on who really was her secret admirer. The thought of who it could be made her sigh dreamily, before she remembered being a romantic was silly.

Today was Saturday, as well as the first of April, and the usual April Fool's hijinks had been sprinkled throughout the day, starting with some third year jokester charming all the pieces of toast to spell out dirty messages when you smeared jam or butter on them. Her brothers' products were also making frequent appearances, such as Headless Hats, Punching Telescopes, and she'd even heard talk of somebody buying a Portable Swamp. Personally, she thought that it was a bit too soon for a repeat of that particularly gag, seeing as it'd been hardly a year since the last time.

Ginny herself tended to avoid all the mindless pranking, appreciating a particularly good prank every now and then with a laugh, but for the most part spent the day flipping lazily through trashy magazines in the Gryffindor common room. By the time one o' clock rolled around, she had just read a particularly detailed article on how to "Spark Your Love Life- Without Magic!" when she realized she should probably be at the statue of Ewan, and quickly ran out.

But by the time she had sat by the bloody statue for over twenty minutes, she was starting to think maybe this secret admirer had forgotten about his own plan to meet her. As if her luck couldn't get any better, she saw Draco Malfoy walking down the corridor.

He noticed her straight away and Ginny noticed immediately that frustratingly attractive smirk grace his lips. He was just one of those annoying people who had it all- money, looks, brains (well, for the most part, anyways)- which made him even more annoying. He stopped once he was in front of her.

"What are you doing here, Weasley?" he asked, like he had some sort of right to know.

"What does it matter to you, Malfoy?" she retorted half-heartedly. Despite the fact she didn't know who he was, she was still a little hurt that her admirer hadn't even bothered to show up. Maybe he over-exaggerated a little in his letters about just how much he liked her...

Malfoy ignored her. "I bet you're waiting for your secret admirer," he quipped, his smirk never faltering.

The words hit Ginny like cold water. "Wait, how did _you _know about that?" she asked incredulously. The only people she'd told were Hermione and Luna, after all.

"Because, as much as this may surprise you, Weasley... I'm your secret admirer." He shrugged a little.

Ginny was shocked. Malfoy? Malfoy? But, wait, this had to be a joke... And then Ginny got it.

"You heartless moronic pig!" she cried, standing up. "How dare you think you can just send me love letters and then just go, 'Ha, ha, April fool! I got you!' You're the biggest arsehole I've ever met in my life! And that's after being possessed by Voldemort himself! What did I do to make you hate me, Malfoy?"

Breathing heavily, her heart beating erratically, she managed not to jinx him as she stomped away, her face flushed, leaving Draco looking very, very stunned.

As she left, she heard him call out, "Like anyone would like you anyway, you harpy!" but she was too indecisive about which hexes to use on him to turn around.

She shouldn't care so much, really. It was just, for once in her life, she felt really special and sexy and smart, like somebody in this school actually noticed her. And he just used it as a way to make her look like any idiot! She should have known. People like Ginny just didn't get notes that said things like, "I keep dreaming about you." Maybe the Cho Chang types did, Ginny wouldn't know, but the Ginny Weasleys of the world got simple boys who just told her they liked her in person. Or maybe not at all, but just spontaneously kissed her and expected her to respond positively. It had happened before, after all.

But the Ginny Weasleys of the world didn't get anonymous love letters- well, not exactly _love _letters per se, as her "admirer" had never said anything about love- unless those letters were from their worst enemies, as it were. Which was really quite depressing. In fact, she hadn't even really had a guy this past Valentine's Day. Well, Michael Corner tried to ask her out again, and she turned him down as usual. But that didn't really count.

And just why did it have to hurt so much that it was from Malfoy? Really. This seemed the kind of thing Ron might do. He'd probably find it hilarious and think himself brilliantly clever. Malfoy seemed... to have higher taste than that sort of prank. He just seemed to be above all that stupidity, though Ginny hated to admit it.

She hated that he could do something like that, and she hated that she had gotten her hopes up so high, and she hated that her eyes were watering, and she hated that people could be so mean, and most of all she hated that she had to see him every single day.

That was the problem with boarding school.

But then, as she sat up on her bed and wiped her eye on the back of her sleeve, she made up her mind. So he though he could fool her? Ha, well, _she _was going to have the last laugh. It should have been common knowledge not to mess with a girl with six older brothers. Ginny couldn't help but smile to herself as she left her dorm, already planning her first move in Operation Destroy Malfoy.

She laughed along with the crowd as Malfoy uncontrollably tap danced in the library.

She tried to hide her smile while his pants were devoured by a "mysterious" copy of _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_... it would only be discovered later that _somebody _had provoked it by jumping up and down on it for a good few minutes, which was only apparent from the shoe prints on the leather cover. Not to mention the thing was charmed to attack Malfoy in particular, although this nobody but Ginny herself knew.

And she grinned rather broadly as he discovered spiders in his ravioli. That had been a prank straight out of the Burrow, one that Fred had tried on George when they were both fourteen.

She'd even convinced Peeves to sing a nasty tune about Malfoy and his need to, erm, do inappropriate things with his bellybutton. She'd gotten the rhyme from a stall in the girl's loo, and had just changed the name of the unfortunate Nelly to Malfoy. Peeves had added the part about what Malfoy liked to do with his toenails when he was done.

That had gotten a lot of funny looks. Ginny nearly burst out laughing as McGonagall pretended not to hear, and merely walked past briskly, blushing a bright pink.

She couldn't imagine how Malfoy would take it, though she was sure there would be much sulking around his dorm for the next few days. And this was only phase one! Despite the fact April Fools only happened on one day, she had an onslaught of pranks with which to punish him for about the next week. Not to mention a hearty Bat-Bogey hex if he came too close. Served him right, anyways, for making her cry and all.

And as she sat out by the lake to watch the sunset (a usual Saturday night practice of hers, as she'd down it with Bill when she was still a little girl) she couldn't help but feel very accomplished. Besides, nobody had traced all of the incidents back to her, and if Malfoy ratted her out, nobody would believe him.

_Perhaps I'm overdoing it a bit? _she wondered, before giving her head a little shake. _No, he deserves it. He deserves it._

And then, as if the universe hadn't given her enough to chew already, the boy in question appeared, seemingly out of no where, and sat beside her on the grass.

"What are you doing here?" she spat, wishing she had thought to bring her wand out with her.

"Weasley, I need to explain myself," Malfoy informed her quietly, as the sky became a lovely shade of deep orange.

Ginny snorted. "Like hell you do, Malfoy. You're deranged. What's there to explain?"

"Well, first off, there's the fact that the letters weren't an April Fools joke. And secondly, there's the fact that I'm not the deranged one here. You're the one who's sent the bloody plague on me." Ginny watched out of the corner of her eye as Malfoy ran his fingers through his hair before registering what he'd said.

"Wait, what? So it _wasn't _all a joke?" She didn't know why knowing this made her feel almost... relieved.

"That's what I'm saying, Weasley. Which brings us back to the whole 'deranged' thing," he replied in a light-hearted kind of joking manner.

"Oh," she said quietly, a wave of some feeling washing over her body- but what was it, exactly? Not just relief, but... Confusion? Happiness? Maybe both. "Oh," she repeated, as the sun dropped lower in the sky.

"That's it?" Malfoy asked after a few minutes of silence.

"I'm sorry," she said finally. She felt just as much of an idiot about pranking him as she did when she thought he had pranked her.

Stupid revenge schemes. They just never seem to work out.

"Well then," Malfoy said, businesslike, "There's only one thing left to do."

And then she felt his cool hand on her sun-warmed neck and then, his lips on hers and she kissed him back, matching his enthusiasm completely.

And she thought back to that first note.

_Ginny Weasley,_

_I keep thinking about you. I don't want to, but I do. Sometimes I wish you'd get out of my head but other times it's like you're the only thing keeping me sane. If by some chance I actually send this to you, you're going to think I'm a complete prick. Then again, you probably already do._

_Reluctantly yours,_

_Your Admirer_

**A/N For the DG Forum "Gotcha" Challenge!**

**An April Fool's Day "Gotcha" Challenge**

**Either Draco or Ginny plays a prank on the other for April Fool's Day.**

**It can either go as planned, or, because they live in the Wizarding World, it can go horribly, horribly wrong. Bonus points if anyone ends up in the Hospital Wing or St. Mungo's (not permanently hurt, of course).**

**Rules:**

**D/G ship, obviously**

**Preferably at Hogwarts because that makes the most sense (of course, I'm insane, so who knows?)**

**Rating:Don't care at all**

**Length: One shot (minimum length 500 words, no maximum)**

**Extra Credit if:**

**1) A Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes product (canon or your imagination) is used**

**2) Peeves is involved**

**3) The line: "NO! Not the buttons! Not my [the] gumdrop buttons!" is incorporated**

**4) Trevor (Neville's toad) is somehow included in the prank. Of course, no animals shall be harmed in the making of this fanfic. **

**I think mine might have been overly fluffy and predictable, but I'm still pretty satisfied with it. :) Be nice and review? Yes?**

**xx**

**Ali**


End file.
